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Ethnic violence claims 14 Santhals, injures 3

Suspected Bodo militants went on a killing spree on Sunday, butchering 14 Santhals, including six women and a child, and injuring three others seriously in Assam's Kokrajhar district.

In retaliation, tribal miscreants killed a Bodo youth at Harapata on Monday morning. The body is yet to be identified. Another Bodo was abducted from Srirampur railway station.

District Deputy Commissioner Thandou said the army staged flag marches in eight vulnerable roads of the trouble-torn district. A control room has been set up to monitor the situation.

A massive combing operation has been launched to nab the militants, he said, adding that officials suspected the militants were backed by the National Democratic Front of Bodoland.

The militants struck in the morning. They stopped a Kokrajhar-bound bus, asked the passengers to disembark, segregated the Santhals, and killed them with sharp weapons and guns.

While 12 people died on the spot, two succumbed to injuries later. Two of the critically injured were shifted to the medical college hospital, Guwahati. Two others were admitted to the Kokrajhar civil hospital.

The bus was coming from Saralpara. It was ambushed at Bismuri, near national highway number 31 (c).

Officials said the incident was apparently in retaliation to the killing of three Bodos by Santhals in April.

At least eight persons have been killed in stray incidents of ethnic violence in the district during the past few days.

Top civil and police officials, including Lower Assam Division Commissioner N K Das, Inspector General of Police (operation) G M Srivastava, and the district deputy commissioner and superintendent of police are directing the combing operation in the area.

In a message from Gandhinagar, Prime Minister A B Vajpayee condemned the massacre. Expressing deep anguish at the heinous crime, he said: ''There is no place for violence in our democratic society.''

In Guwahati, Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta reviewed the situation at a high-level meeting, which was attended among others by Chief Secretary P K Bora and Director General of Police H Hrishikeshan.

The chief minister directed three cabinet colleagues to rush to the spot, officials said.

Mahanta condemned the killings and conveyed his condolences to the bereaved families. He announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 100,000 to the next of kin each of those killed, and Rs 50,000 each to the injured.

Ruling party spokesman Digen Chandra Bora described the incident as a "political conspiracy" to destabilise the Asom Gana Parishad-led four-party government in the state.

UNI

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